


till death do us part.

by northerndavvn



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: M/M, hey do you want some semi-fluffy angst, i know y'all do, so here
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-23
Updated: 2013-08-23
Packaged: 2017-12-24 10:51:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 595
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/939108
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/northerndavvn/pseuds/northerndavvn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Seal it with a kiss?" </p><p>They don't have the time to wait for marriage.</p>
            </blockquote>





	till death do us part.

**Author's Note:**

> how do i cope with things? i write fic.
> 
> that is also how i stay awake in school.

 

  
_regrets collect like old friends  
_ _here to relive your darkest moments_

* * *

In his dreams, Bertholt remembered a little boy.

It had always been the two of them for what seemed like eternity, he and that boy with the gold hair. He remembered laughter and secrets shared, and though sometimes there were others, that boy was always there.

"I'm gonna make you my bride," he had told Bertholt angrily once, rinsing out the younger's skinned knees and elbows with water. Bertholt had spluttered, though he didn't know if it was from the sting or the sudden declaration. "I'm gonna make you my bride, so I don't have to leave you, 'cause you always get into trouble when I leave you."

"Reiner," Bertholt protested weakly, as Berick laughed loudly somewhere behind them. "You can't just say stuff like that."

Reiner glanced up, looked him straight in the eye and asked, tone challenging, "Why not?"

* * *

They grew up, and there was always the two of them.

Reiner changed- from the child with the gold hair, to the warrior, to the soldier, to the confused, frightened boy he truly was- but Bertholt stayed the same. Bertholt stayed the same, and he watched with sad eyes as Reiner struggled with his guilt and he wished for the boy who had wanted to marry him to protect him from bullies.

It was because of Reiner that they were here now, because of Reiner and his fool-hardy idealism. Bertholt's entire body throbbed painfully in time with the beat of his heart, the severed stump of his leg hissing with steam. He could feel the four broken ribs (three on his left, one on his right) as they mended, slowly. Both he hand Reiner's hands were raw and bloody, littered with bitemarks from failed transformations. Half of Reiner's face was scabbed and ugly, and his right arm was twisted at a grotesque angle.

And as much as Bertholt may have hated Reiner in that moment, he still called to mind all the hesitant touches and steamy kisses and that bone-deep, age-old affection that lingered in the back of his brain. "Let's get married," he blurts out.

Reiner shifts to stare at Bertholt incredulously, the pinkie of his left hand brushing against Bertholt's right. "Isn't that my line?" he teases, though it comes out weak and raspy.

The tiniest of smiles, sad and unsure, lifts the corners of Bertholt's mouth. "No, it's my turn," he says, and plucks a long blade of grass, tying it gingerly around his finger like a ring. He takes Reiner's hand and repeats the action.

"I don't remember how it goes," Reiner says, his eyes tracking Bertholt's movements. The taller nearly smiles at the horror in his friend-turned-lover-turned-whatever's voice.

But he doesn't, because Reiner's hand is shaking and sweating in his grasp, so Bertholt swallows down something that might have been a laugh or a sob. "It's okay," he says quietly, roughly. "I don't either."

"Seal it with a kiss?"

There's no answer, but that's okay because they both lean forward, so in sync with each other that it only comes naturally. The kiss is chaste, uncomfortable and just a little painful, but it works, and Bertholt sees the gratitude shining in his eyes, sees the love that lurks behind the sadness.

"Does that mean I can call you my husband, now?"

And Bertholt really does laugh, this time.

* * *

They're married for real just a little over three years later, and when the vows are sealed, when they part from their kiss, the nooses are placed around their necks.


End file.
